Negotiating presence in digital spaces: Rural women's everyday smartphone practices in North India

The role of smartphones for women's digital inclusion and social participation is increasingly being studied within the field of ICT4D research. However, there is relatively less emphasis given on how married women's digital presence is shaped by gendered power relations in highly patriarchal settings. The study uses an interpretive qualitative research design, applying Foucault's concept of power to understand the everyday smartphone use of married rural women in Western Uttar Pradesh, North India. A total of 26 in-depth, Semi-structured interviews were conducted among rural women. The in-depth interviews were conducted in five villages of the Muzaffarnagar district of Western Uttar Pradesh. The findings reveal that women's smartphone practices expanded their everyday information practices, while these practices remained influenced by family-mediated access, reinforced surveillance, and social expectations. Theoretically, the study extended Foucault's concept of power to understand control and surveillance by showing how disciplinary power operates through anticipated surveillance and self-regulation in women's everyday smartphone practices.